n and lay flat down beside it. Seeing that his friend was gone,
and hearing the clatter of his retreating charger, Corporal Shoveloff
put spurs to his steed and followed.

The Turks then rose, tied the legs of the sergeant with his own
sword-belt, lest he should recover inopportunely, and bore him to a
neighbouring thicket which loomed darkly through the fog.

"Fate smiles upon us," whispered Ali Bobo, as the comrades entered the
bushes and laid their burden down.

If Bobo had known that he had laid that burden down within ten yards of
the spot where Dobri Petroff was preparing, as I have described, to
stalk the figure he had discovered in the same thicket, he might have
recalled the sentiment in reference to Fate. But Bobo did not know.

Suddenly, however, he discovered the figure that Petroff was stalking.
It was leaning against a tree. He pointed it out to Eskiwin, while the
scout, interrupted in his plans, sank into darkness and watched the
result with much curiosity and some impatience.

Just then the figure roused itself with a heavy sigh, looked sleepily
round, and, remarking in an undertone, "It's an 'orrible sitooation,"
turned itself into a more comfortable position and dropped off again
with another sigh.

But Ali Bobo did not allow it to enjoy repose. He glided forward, and,
with a spring like that of a cat, laid his hand upon its mouth and threw
it violently to the ground. With the aid of Eskiwin he pinned it, and
then proceeded to gag it.

All this Dobri Petroff observed with much interest, not unmingled with
concern, for he perceived that the new-comers were Turks, and did not
like the idea of seeing a man murdered before his eyes. But the thought
of his friend Petko Borronow, and what he had at stake, restrained him
from action. He was however at once relieved by observing that, while
the short Turk kneeled on the prisoner's chest and kept his mouth
covered, so as to prevent his crying out, the tall Turk quickly tied his
legs and hands. It was thus clear that immediate death was not
intended.

The scout's interest, to say nothing of surprise, was increased by what
followed. When the short Turk, pointing a revolver at the prisoner's
head, removed his hand so as to admit of speech, that prisoner's first
utterance was an exclamation of astonishment in tones which were
familiar to Petroff's ear. This was followed by exclamations of
recognition from the Turks, and the short man seizing one